Badass Heroines - The unconventional tale of Isabella Bird

Just listed in my Etsy store, this ombre knitted scarf is named after one of my ultimate heroines, Isabella Bird.

Isabella shetland lace scarf - knitted from 100% pure wool & handmade in New Zealand

A Victorian lady explorer who didn't let a little thing called convention stand in the way of doing what she wanted to do.

Isabella travelled the world, exploring China, Japan, Persia, India, Australia and even stopping off in my homeland of New Zealand (which she hated). She climbed volcanoes in Hawaii and refused to ride side saddle on her 800 mile journey through the Rockies.

While in Colorado she met and fell for the ultimate bad boy, an outlaw by the name of Rocky Mountain Jim. He liked his liquor and had lost an eye in an unfortunate incident taking on a grizzly bear. Isabella would say that he was "a man any woman might love but no sane woman would marry". Yet together they would ascend mountains, including their famous ascent of Longs Peak.

Isabella Bird - unconventional Victorian badass

Isabella Bird later became the first woman inducted into the Royal Geographical Society. She was fiercely independent and proved that life could be full of adventure if you have the courage to dream outside the box.

Best reads:
- A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella L. Bird,  1879.
- Unbeaten Tracks in Japan: The Firsthand Experiences of a British Woman in Outback Japan in 1878 by Isabella L. Bird, 1880.
- The Golden Chersonese: A 19th-Century Englishwoman's Travels in Singapore and the Malay Peninsula by Isabella L. Bird,  1883.
- The Yangtze Valley and Beyond: Tales of Old China by Isabella L. Bird,  1899.

You can check out the Isabella scarf here.